


Book Smarts

by BrownieFox



Series: If At First You Don't Succeed [4]
Category: Supernatural
Genre: Bonding, Gen, Lily has anxiety around people, Psychic kids, Sam wants a friend, Time Travel Fix-It, future Sam is here, future Sam is in over his head, making up angel lore is fun, season 4 ish plot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-29
Updated: 2020-11-29
Packaged: 2021-03-09 21:14:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,337
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27782815
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BrownieFox/pseuds/BrownieFox
Summary: While John and Dean leave to deal with seals, Sam is left behind to help Bobby with research. Bobby calls in some help.Edit: changed the title from Angels and Psychics to Book Smarts
Relationships: Bobby Singer & Sam Winchester, Dean Winchester & Sam Winchester, Lily Baker & Sam Winchester
Series: If At First You Don't Succeed [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1364314
Comments: 2
Kudos: 67





	Book Smarts

It was a lot to take in, Sam had to admit.

Dad being alive again, angels being real and one being behind the resurrection, the angels having some kind of vested interest in Dean ‘Holy Man’ Winchester, and 66 seals demons were trying to break to let loose Lucifer.

The angel - Castiel, and Sam had found himself whispering the name to himself with a sense of awe - had come to Dean again the early morning after the initial summoning. It - he? - had told Dean that the recent spike in demon sightings was due to a gate of Hell having been opened, and that the angels had become aware of the demon’s plans. Dean, as the Righteous Man, was supposed to aid the angels and in a way act as their ‘fierce sword’ to help oppose the breaking of the seals.

The fallout in the morning had been… not great, since as far as Sam could tell he was the only one willing to believe the angels and trust them. Bobby did think the angel might actual be an angel, but didn’t think they could be trusted. Dean and John were both agreed on Castiel not being an angel or trustworthy. 

But if there was one thing they were all on the same page about, it was that the demons couldn’t be allowed to break the seals. None of them could really see anything bad coming from throwing wrenches into the plans of demons.

The next week had been spent with quickly-created plans and some demon-sign tracking. Bobby let Dean take time out of school to do some hunts. Bobby claimed it was because if John needed help from the angel, there was a better chance of it showing up and lending a hand if Dean was there as well. Sam - as well as Dean, probably - saw through it to Bobby trying to keep the peace with John, if only for a little bit longer. Bobby had made it clear he expected Dean to keep up with school work while he was gone and be back at least in time for finals. 

None of this was said with John in the room.

“Bet you’ve been dying to get out of this town again.” Sam said to Dean. His brother stood by the door, his usual bag filled once more with his clothes and weapons. It was less full that it used to be, some of his less favored clothes staying behind in the drawers next to his bed. A promise, in its own way.

“Gonna be nice to stretch my legs out.” Dean ceded with a half-smirk.

“And finally get somewhere where the girls haven’t already wised up to you?” Sam teased.

“Hey, I still get plenty of game here.” Dean sniffed.

“Sure, jerk.”

“Bitch.”

Dean reached forward and ruffled Sam’s hair. Sam glared weakly and pushed Dean’s hand away and watched Dean walk out the door, out to the passenger side of the impala.

It was bad luck to say goodbye. So they never did.

He gave a nod to his dad as he left. The ‘chick-flick’, as Dean had called it, from when John had first come back had steadily faded with the following days of their dad being alive and staying that way.

Still, he couldn’t help the little bit of anxiety that flipped through his stomach as he watched the impala pull out of Singer Salvage Yard. He didn’t want to go on a hunt, he really didn’t… but he hated having them go out there without him. He still hated watching them leave and waiting for them to come back, the minutes and hours and days of Not Knowing. 

Sam didn’t mean to stand there, watching until the impala was out of sight and a then some, as if expecting it to show back up again. He cursed silently to himself at the old habit he’d thought he’d kicked and closed the front door with a little too much force, walking into the kitchen with heavy footfalls just short of stomping off. 

“Mind helping me get some things set up?” 

Sam blinked out of his frustration and anger (and worry). Bobby was clearing off the table of most of his current work.

“Set up?” Sam repeated.

“Yup.” 

“For what?” Sam asked even as he started to grab things and move them into the lying room. 

“Your dad can think what he will, but I’m not going to try and stave off the apparent  _ apocalypse  _ on my own. Anyway, as we already said, Seth knows John’s back anyway.” Bobby explained, starting to grab some different books and notes to fill in the empty spots on the table. 

“Seth’s coming?” Sam repeated. 

“Yup, should be here in an hour or two. Your dad was taking so long to leave I was worried they might run into each other.”

Sam chuckled at that. God, it was bad enough that Bobby and John were practically seconds away from getting into a fight that, if they were unlucky - and they often weren't - would end with Bobby threatening John with a shotgun again. It was bad enough between John and Sam as well. Something was going to give, and that was another reason why it was probably good that John was getting out of the house; it gave everybody more time to prepare for the coming fallout.

The next couple hours passed with agnozing slowness as Bobby assembled what he wanted to talk to Seth about on the table and Sam ran about trying to figure out what kind of questions he would ask when Seth came. Seth came often enough, but it was still exciting to see him. There was really something about meeting and talking to other Hunters that never ceased to intigue him. Like those three Hunters Dean had had trips with - Tamika, Augustus, and Tim - who had been willing to divulge Sam’s ceaseless questions. He had more tact than to ask what had brought any of them into the life, but the stories and lore they carried effortlessly with them were more than enough. 

Finally, there was a knock, and Sam almost raced to the front door, nearly beating Bobby before remembering that, technically, the Man of Letters was here for Bobby, and letting the older Hunter open the door. 

Seth was as tall as ever, the doorway barely looking made to account for him. He was carrying a stack of thick books in his arms that, even if he was strong simply by the line of work, was clearly starting to put a strain on him. But that wasn’t surprising.

What was surprising was the girl standing right behind him with her own stack of books. 

She had long blonde hair that fell mostly in front of her face and was wearing a dark outfit, giving her a sort of goth look that was added to by the black gloves on her hands. She looked like the kind of person who would be in a group typically labeled ‘outcasts’. Sam was very familiar with such groups, considering how many different schools he’d been to. They were also usually the group that would take him in during his short stays.

“You didn’t say you were bringing company.” Bobby grunted, but Sam knew the man was just curious and not mad in the slightest. 

“Sorry, I thought I mentioned something but it must have slipped my mind.” Seth apologized, slipping by Bobby and Sam and walking speedily to the dining-now-research table to deposit his books before his arms gave out. The girl followed right behind Seth and deposited her load as well, quickly retreating to stand just barely behind Seth. She wasn’t exactly hiding behind him, but it was a close thing. 

“Bobby, Sam, this is Lily. Lily, this is Bobby and Sam. If you’ve ever in any trouble, we should have Bobby’s number back at the B-, uh, back at home.” Lily nodded, eyes darting between Sam and Bobby and then back to Sam. 

“Is Sam your son?” Lily asked, voice fairly quiet. Now that her hands weren't carrying a mountain of books, she’d folded her arms and tucked her hands close to her body.

“No- well, not exactly.” Bobby said, and then didn’t say anything more on the issue. Lily looked up at Seth, and the man gave a little nod and shrug. Sam blinked as he recognized it as a less-subtle version of the look Dean and he sometimes shared when they were promising to explain something later, but that wasn’t terribly important anyway and it could wait for a little bit without any consequence. 

“Alright, so you said you were having an angel issue.” Seth said, starting to spread his books out more as well as looking at Bobby’s that he’d gathered. 

“Glad to see you’ve taken me seriously.” Bobby sighed, starting to get a feel for the piece – and Sam knew this must only be a piece – of Seth’s collection. A fair deal of the titles were in different languages, some of them still using the English alphabet and others not, and those that he could read had tiles like ‘A Proposed Study of the Hierarchy of Angels’ or ‘Angels, Spells, and the Unforeseen Consequences’. 

“You keep mistaking me for a Hunter, Bobby.” Seth chuckled.

“Wait… did you know about angels?” Sam asked. Seth jumped slightly, looking like he’d momentarily forgotten about Sam, and blinked before smiling and shaking his head. 

“Well, know is a strong word for it. The Men of Letters were devoted to collecting lore, and as you can see that extended to angels. But, well… I wasn’t taught by most of the men of letters, and what I did learn had to be done a bit quickly, so I can’t say for sure whether or not the rest of the Men of Letters believed angels were actually real or not. I’ve, of course, had my own suspicions what with all of the evidence they’ve collected, so when you said you needed everything I had on angels, I decided just to bring what looked most relevant.” Seth patted one of the books – this one with odd symbols on the cover Sam had no hope of being able to decipher. “And, of course, there’s the whole Enochian thing.”

Bobby nodded thoughtfully at that, and Sam stepped forward, curiosity pushing hesitance aside as he picked up one of the other books with the same strange symbols, leafing through it to find that it was all written with the same odd symbols. 

“That’s Enochian.” It was the first thing Lily had said. She was leaning over to look at the book as well, but her arms were still tight tight tighly folded. 

“Enochian.” Sam repeated the word, trying to place whether he’d heard it before or not. 

“Language of angels.” Lily supplied. 

“Well, in a manner of speaking,” Seth corrected, “The symbols you see are fairly close, but you can only get so accurate when trying to transcribe the written language of beings you can’t comprehend - or so the books say. Angels don’t have a true ‘language’ as could be understood or spoken on our same plane of understanding. You could make sounds that are an almost barbaric approximation, but those are rough at best. An angel would speak using its grace, like a wavelength of power and purpose. The closest a human would have is their soul, but few humans are aware enough of their soul to be able to try and communicate through it, and I’m sure none would know Enochian, and further than that it’d be useless as no one - angel or human - would be listening anyway.” 

Seth said it all in a matter-of-fact tone that Sam had to admit shocked him a bit, and Bobby looked impressed as well. Lily looked like she was just barely stopping herself from rolling her eyes but the corner of her mouth twitched as if it had been moments away from a smile. 

“Thought about that a lot, have you?” Bobby asked. Seth ducked his head, looking for a moment like an embarrassed kid under the praise of a parent, but the image was quickly dashed as he sat up straight once more. 

“You have your research in demons - which less than a year ago many people came close to scoffing at - and I have mine in angels. I guess we’re both getting the last laughs now.” Seth said and Bobby barked a laugh at that. 

“You got me there.” 

oOo

Research was a slow thing. There really was such a thing as having too much lore to dig through, something all the Winchesters - all Hunters, probably - were well aware of, but considering just how much information on angels had to be distinguished away from myths, it was more than a little intimidating. 

Seth’s books were clearly the more useful sources, but even those seemed to contradict eachother far more often than was preferable. And of course, there were only so many of those Bobby or Sam could read. Bobby could dig into the non-english ones, Sam could muddle his way through a latin one if he really tried and made some generous use of a dictionary, and Seth was the only one able to make any real progress through the Enochian ones. 

Lily hadn’t stayed around long after the research started. Seth had told her she was welcome to explore the yard as long as she kept her shoes on and had taken off like a shot. Seth had sighed a bit sadly but hadn’t explained any more about the girl or why he’d brought her along. Neither Bobby nor Sam asked. 

Eventually, though, Sam decided that he really needed to stretch his legs and sat his notebook aside, wedged in between the pages of the book he’d been working through. Neither of the adults seemed bothered by Sam’s unwillingness to work for hours on end. John rarely  _ forced  _ Sam to, but his disappointment was always so clear and there were often reprimanding words on Sam’s work ethic. 

He found Lily sitting outside, leaning up against one of the cars. He hadn’t noticed before that she had a spiral-bound notebook, and she was drawing in it. She was so invested in her art that she didn’t notice Sam was there until he set a hand on a car, causing a dull and metal thud sound, and she jumped almost violently at the sound, clutching her notebook close to her chest and staring up at Sam like he was a werewolf about to pounce.

They both were frozen like that for a moment as Sam realized he hadn’t thought as far as what he’d actually say once he’d found her. How was he supposed to say that he didn’t meet Hunters his age  _ ever,  _ Dean  _ definitely _ didn’t count, and he really wanted to talk to her about it. Even just ‘being a really young Man (Woman?) of Letters’ had to account for something, right?

“I’m Sam.” Is eventually what Sam, very lamely said. 

“Yeah.” Lily said, once more looking like she was trying to not roll her eyes and Sam felt the heat rush to his cheeks. Alright, yup, this was a bad idea, he should just- “I-I’m Lily.”

Sam blinked and stared at her stupidly for a bit longer, because yes, he knew she was Lily, and then he realized the olive branch for what it was. Her eyes were nervously flicking between Sam, down to her notebook, and then to the cars before returning to him, and her pale face was a bit more pink.

“So… you’re Seth’s kid?” Sam asked, and took a few more steps toward her. She regarded him warily, shifting uncomfortably. It was a lot like the cats that tended to populate the place and how they’d only let you get so close before bolting; Bobby kept saying he was going to get a dog to drive them off. Sam took his cue to not get any closer and instead sat down where he was. 

“As much as you’re Bobby’s.” Lily replied, which meant nothing considering neither Bobby nor Sam had felt right trying to sort through the weird circumstances of their current relation. 

“Ah.” Sam said anyway, like he now understood. “So, you and Seth… well, the angels, and the Men of Letters… ugh.” Sam buried his head in his hands with a groan, shaking his head. He lifted his head back up to try again and now there was that twitching at the corner of her mouth again and Sam ducked his head in embarrassment but still did his best to steal himself, “Did you grow up knowing about the supernatural?” 

“Oh.” Something seemed to click for her and she looked away from him, tucking a strand of her long hair behind an ear, “I’m sorry, but no.”

“Oh.” Sam couldn’t hide his disappointment. It wasn’t so much that he wanted other kids to have been exposed to the horrors he and his brother had, but… well, was it really so much to ask for somebody else to talk to his age who understood. 

“I only heard about it, like, a little over half a year ago.” She went on, “I’ve been living with Seth ever since.”

“Oh.” Sam said once more, at a loss for what other word could encapsulate ‘yes I can read between the lines and I’m really sorry your parents are probably dead, and I really want to know what happened but I have the tact not to just ask how your parents died.’ So instead, he offered up his own tragic backstory. “I’ve known my whole life. My mom died when I was a baby.” 

“I'm sorry. My dad’s still alive. He, uh, he decided I’d be safer with Seth at the Bunker. Well, Seth suggested it, but dad agreed.” Lily said, now looking rather fixedly at her notebook. 

“The Bunker?”

“Seth’s house. Well, it’s not really a house, not like your Bobby has. Seth clearly wants us all to call it a house, though, but he usually calls it the Bunker, and I think that’s a cooler sounding name anyway.” Lily rambled, and the change of topic off of her dead parent did wonders to make her seem a bit more sure of herself. In fact, throughout the whole conversation, Lily’s voice had been getting a little louder. Not like she was shouting, but leagues better than her quiet and shy muttering she’d started with. 

“I’m glad I have a house I live in now.” Sam said. Lily’s mouth twitched up again, and this time it stayed in the little smile. 

“Seth says he used to move around a lot too. He still keeps most of his clothes and important things in a bag so that he can leave quickly. He saw me trying to do that, though, and made a whole thing out of me putting my clothes into drawers and then going out and picking out new clothes and books for myself and stuff. 

“Bobby did sort of the same thing! I mean, Dean and I’ve stayed here before, but it was more permanent this time, more final, so he took us out shopping and said not to worry about price and stuff. Of course that didn’t stop Dean and I from looking for the cheapest things available.” It was so natural by this point to find what was sheep, to spend the money on things that needed to be bought a bit nicer - shoes and weapons and such. Clothes were bought as cheap as possible, almost entirely second-hand, especially for Sammy, still growing and with a growth-spurt Sam knew must be coming because there was no way he was going to be this short his whole life. “What kind of books did you end up choosing?”

“I’ve been making my way through  _ Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy _ ?”

“Oh, I’ve read that! Did you get to the part…” 

oOo

“So, a kid, huh?” 

Sam had left a few minutes ago, clearly seeking out the girl who had clung to Seth’s back like a koala before making a very quick escape out to the yard. Bobby could remember Sam and Dean when they were younger tossing their bags into their room and then running out to explore the junkyard, like all they saw in the husks of cars was a big jungle-gym just for them, and John and Bobby both just barely able to get out a shouted ‘keep your shoes on or you’ll cut up your feet’ before the door slammed shut behind them. 

Seth blinked as Bobby’s question pulled him out of his research, rubbing his head and eyes. He’d been jotting down notes from the current Enochian tome in front of him, and from what Bobby could see the notes jumped randomly into and out of Enochian themselves. He’d have to ask Seth about teaching him how to read it, or some kind of Enochian-to-English dictionary. 

“Kid? Oh, yes, Lily.” He shook his head, like he had to physically turn his brain off of the track he’d been on. “Sorry, I know I should’ve said something earlier, but it really did just slip my mind.”

“It’s alright, just surprised is all, with all the bonding we’ve done over John’s decisions.” Bobby shook his head. He knew there was no way that Seth would be raising a kid the Winchester way - on the road and putting a knife in one of her hands and a gun in the other - but it didn’t make it any less surprising.

“I know.” Seth sighed, “But I do have the Bunker for them all to live in, and they still go to school. I’ve been trying to be home more often, but, well, it looks like things are going to be a little rough for a while yet.” 

“There’s more?” Bobby’s eyebrows shot to the top of his head. 

“Y… yeah, there’s more. God, Bobby, it all happened so fast.” Seth buried his face in his hands. “I mean, it was an easy choice when it came to Max, he had a bad family life to begin with, and Jake’s parents have been considering having him back, but Ansem and Andy don’t have family to go back to other than each other, Ava’s parents don’t seem even remotely ready to try and take on the whole supernatural world any time soon, and Lily…” Seth sighed again, shoulders slumping more. 

“Five kids?”

“Five. kids.” Seth sighed. “I brought Lily along because she really needs to get out of the Bunker more.” 

“Are people paying you in kids for Hunts?” Bobby couldn’t for the life of him understand how a Hunter - or Man of Letters - could wind up with so many kids. 

“No, it’s… well, it’s complicated, but I have to look out for them now.” 

There was silence as Bobby waited for Seth to explain further and the man didn’t, and Bobby let the subject drop. He’d ask again, later. He trusted Seth, but he also knew this life was never meant for kids. Seth had better have a damn good reason for having five children in the middle of it, living in the middle of his hub of lore. 

“What have you found so far?” Seth asked, and Bobby let the man guide the conversation away from his situation. 

“Something, that’s for sure, but I’m not sure how useful it’ll actually be.” Bobby looked down at the book he’d been reading, ‘A Proposed Study of the Hierarchy of Angels’. “This claims that there’s several ranks to the angels, top-most being the Archangels, then seraphims, ophanim, and virtues. Then there’s some sub-groups, like cherubs or rit zien who don’t really fall somewhere on the rankings. I can’t figure out where our guest fits on it, however. I’m doubting the last two, and Archangel seems a little far fetched, but the other three all seem to be powerful enough.” Bobby grumbled. It didn’t help that he’d only ‘met’ Castiel the once, and then for only a few seconds before he was knocked out. Seth nodded along.

“Yeah, that all sounds right. I’ll save you some reading in that chapter if you want to move on. It just goes on to talk about princes and choirs, which aren’t as nice as they sound. Choirs are their groups. Think of them like… garrisons. The princes are the captains of each choir. It’s implied that the rank comes with a certain amount of power boost, but it’s also unclear if it’s just permission to use their power in ways they hadn’t been before.” Seth explained. Bobby put his notes down, squinting at the man.

“... how much of this do you already know?” 

Seth doesn’t meet his eyes as he shrugs. 

“I’m the resident angel expert, I’ve gone through a lot of these books already. But you know that sometimes a fresh set of eyes can pick up on things you might’ve missed.” Seth defended. “The hierarchy is endlessly interesting, but I don’t feel bad, ah, spoiling it, as I’m more hoping we can find things on how to repel or protect against angels.” 

“Well? Have you found anything of use?” 

“Maybe. This is a book on various angels,” Seth patted the book in front of him - one of the Enochian-only ones, “And I’ve found some stuff on Castiel. He's supposed to be the angel of Thursday, and while it doesn’t say his ranking I think it’s fair to say he’s probably at least an ophanim, if not a seraphim. He’s a diligent watcher, and we should definitely take it as a bad sign of things to come that he’s been ordered to act.” Seth pointed to some words in his book that meant absolutely nothing to Bobby. 

“Great, that’s just what I was hoping you’d say.” Bobby shook his head. “This really does just get better and better, huh?” 

Seth hummed his agreement. 

Oddly enough, though, the man didn’t look all that worried. 

**Author's Note:**

> So i'm not entirely sure what the angel system is in canon, so i've decided to more or less make it up while staring at too many wikipedia pages. I also love the idea of Enochian-speaking Sam, but they out of left-field I was hit by 'angels don't really speak when they're just pure angel, huh?'. So this is my proposed idea of it, mostly ignoring any real Enochian there is out there (if there is real enochian? idk i was too lazy to check lol).
> 
> I've always felt that the psychic kids - and whole psychic thing - deserved better than canon gave it, so we aren't just dropping these kids and calling it good. Here, we accidentally adopt ten kids and are penpals with like ten others! 
> 
> I actually almost wrote a fourth chapter to the previous work in which we get to see the fall out of the barn and then the second meeting between cas and dean, but stopped halfway through to get this one started. If anybody would be interested in that, though, let me know and I might try and finish it up anyway :)
> 
> I'm going to be taking a hella of a lot of the stuff on Cassiel and shoving it onto Castiel, because why not right? 
> 
> I made a playlist for this fic if you wanted to hear some bops [Right Here :)](https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4BAjHlD5f6zt9YYaBKR91S?si=HjvloA0NS1eCU7jeQ2J7Kg)
> 
> Next time: Seth calls in some reinforcements.


End file.
